250 Natural History of Molluscous Animals : — 
they lie loose between it and the shell, or, lastly, they are 
fixed to the latter by a kind of neck; and it is said they do 
not appear until the animal has eeaghied its fourth year. They 
have a beautiful lustre, which must be familiar to you, but 
there is nothing peculiar in their chemical composition, con- 
sisting merely of carbonate of lime. 
The Romans were extravagantly fond of these ornaments, 
which claimed the first rank after the diamond; and they 
gave almost incredible prices for them. Julius Caesar pre- 
sented Servilia, the mother of M. Brutus, with a pearl worth 
48,4171. 10s.; and Cleopatra, at a feast with Antony, of 
‘hidh Pliny has given a long and inter esting account, swal- 
lowed one dissolved i in vinegar of the value of 80,7291. 3s. 4d. 
They wore them in great pr rofusion, not only in the ears, and 
on the fingers, head, and neck, but strung over the whole 
body ; and. the men as well as the ladies were thus adorned. 
The naturalist, in deprecating this effeminacy, becomes elo- 
quent, and in his censures there is something, perhaps, not 
inapplicable to ourselves : — * Quid undis fluctibusque cum 
vellere? Non recte recipit heec nos rerum natura, nisi nudos. 
Esto, si tanta ventri cum eo societas, quid tergori? Parum 
est, nisi qui vescimur periculis, etiam vestiamur: adeo per to- 
tum corpus, anima hominis queesita maxime placent.” * (Hist. 
Nai, lib, 1X. ¢..53.) 
The principal fisheries of this people were in the Red Sea, 
the Gulf of Persia, and the Indian Ocean, the pearls from the 
former places being the most highly valued as superior in size 
and lustre; and it is matter of history that Czesar was 
induced to invade Britain from some exaggerated accounts he 
had heard of the pearls of our coasts, or rather of our rivers ; 
but if these were his object he was disappointed, for they 
were found to be of a bad colour and inferior size, nor have 
they improved in their reputation. 
Cey ‘lon continues to be, as it was in the time of the Romans, 
the most productive of these ornaments. ‘The ancient fisheries 
in the Red Sea, however, are now either exhausted or ne- 
glected, and cities of the greatest celebrity have in conse- 
quence sunk into insignificance or total ruin. Dahalac was 
the chief port of the pearl trade on the southern part of the 
Red Sea, and Suakem on the north; and under the Ptolemies, 
* « What have the waves to do with our garments? That element 
does not rightly receive us unless we are naked. Grant that there is so 
great a communion betwixt the sea and the belly, what has the sea to do 
with the back ? It is not enough that our food is procured through perils, 
if perils are not also encounter ed for our raiment. Thus in all that. pertains 
to the body, things acquired at the risk of human life are most pleasing.” 
